7 Tactical Tips for Using Digital Marketing to Drive Member Engagement
Did you miss out on our webinar with OpenWater a few weeks ago? HighRoad’s Director of Client Services, Maneesha Manges, delivered a compelling webinar about using digital marketing to drive engagement in your membership base. Read on to get a breakdown of the top tips and marketing basics that you can share with your team!
Digital Marketing Basics
In today’s digital world there are a multitude of channels to use to your advantage. Digital marketing, outside of leveraging channels, is all of the marketing efforts and serves as the over-arching “umbrella” that encompasses content marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and email marketing. In order to be effective in the digital space, your organization must deliver what prospects and members want. Personalizing content establishes trust, and of course, the more trust a member has in you, the greater likelihood of conversion, purchase, etc. Along with delivering what prospects and members want, it is imperative to measure your data and consider the metrics that mean the most to your organization. Whether it is cost per clicks, average time on site, or conversion rate, don’t forget to measure!
7 Tactical Tips to Drive Engagement
Tip 1: Assess the Data You Have & Use It: In order to use your data to your advantage you have to be able to talk to prospects and members to craft a message according to their needs. Can you answer the following questions about your organization?
- Why won’t my members participate?
- What can I say to influence them?
- What’s in it for them?
- Why should they participate?
- Who in my membership base is most likely to benefit from answering my call for submissions?
Tip 2: Look-alikes are Probably Hanging Out in Your AMS: As an association, you are sitting on a gold mine of data! If you have designated the type of member who will benefit from your program and the characteristics they exhibit, your actual candidates probably already exist in your database -find them and encourage them to apply!
Tip 3: Personalize Your Message: Build trust in your communications and always demonstrate value. Tap into the “FOMO” (fear of missing out) if you really have to, but at minimum create messaging that resonates with your member or recruit.
Tip 4: Use Social Media To Promote & Recruit: Consider using hashtags to increase exposure of your program and attract candidates that might not know anything about you.
Tip 5: Go Big. Be Creative: Consider seeding “This could be you” themes into your messaging. Try out gamification concepts. Tap into elements around competition and recognition that allow you to be creative. The more creative you are, the more likely your candidates will pause and listen to your message.
Tip 6: Make the “Ask” Simple: Get to the point and don’t overcomplicate your message. Email can be an easy way to do this; make sure your message articulates why you’re making the ask and then present a simple call to action. Make sure to focus on your recipient – it’s about them!
Tip 7: Monitor and React Accordingly: Digital lets you easily modify your campaigns easily. Take advantage of your tools, check for progress, goals, and rate of completion. Consider your messaging and play up on gamification elements to identify engagement levels.
What should you do next?
Look for people who will benefit and be best suited for your organization! Personalize your message to ensure prospects and members know what is in it for them and use social media to recruit previously unknown candidates. Don’t forget to measure and do some data mining to see how last year’s campaign performed. Want to learn more? Check out our in-depth materials on increasing member engagement!